how to recognize WD external USB drive Windows 11 - drive letter not showing under PC

Question

how to recognize WD external USB drive Windows 11 - drive letter not showing under PC

File Explorer Open

go to This PC

Network and C Drive Shows no other drive is displayed

Answer 1

Hello,

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft community forum.

I understand that your WD external USB drive is not recognized. You can try the following steps to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Ensure that the USB cable is properly connected to the external drive and computer. Try to connect the drive to another USB port.
2. Check disk management:

Right-click the Start button and select Disk Management.

Find your WD external hard drive in the list. If you can see it but don't have a drive letter, right-click on it, select "Change drive letter and Path," and then click "Add" or "Change" to assign a drive letter.

3. Update the driver:

Right-click the Start button and select Device Manager.

Expand the "Disk Drives" section and find your WD external drive.

Right-click on the drive and select "Update Driver", then select "Automatically search for updated driver software".

4. Check disk errors:

Right click the Start button and select Command Prompt (Admin)

Type "chkdsk X: /f", replace the "X:" with the drive letter of the WD external hard drive, and press Enter. This will check the drive for errors and try to fix them.

5. Try testing the drive on another computer to rule out hardware problems with the drive itself.

I hope this helps.

Best regards

Jacen

——————————————————————————————————

If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.